Competition and Beyond: Problems and Attention Allocation in the Organizational Rulemaking Process

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sullivan, Bilian Ni
• 署名单位: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1090.0436
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 432-450
• 关键词: organizational attention; bounded rationality; ORGANIZATIONAL ADAPTATION; Organizational learning; rulemaking

摘要

This study investigates how an organization allocates attention and generates solutions in response to new problems challenging existing routines, under the influences of different contexts surrounding problems and solutions. By examining the formation of airline safety rules by the Federal Aviation Administration, I show that although different types of problems compete for attention at the rule proposal stage when the organization searches for solutions to problems, at the rule finalization stage, attention is guided by urgency induced by the aggregate flow of new problems, which interacts with certain institutional factors and with an a priori priority given to different types of rules. The implications of the study on theories of organizational attention are discussed.